How to win souls through film evangelism. Now Frontline Fellowship and Literature for Africa have been, from the very beginning, involved in literature and film evangelism. Here's an important motivational poem. If I go not to those who have not heard, if I withhold from them God's precious word, if sin-cursed heathen go to Christless graves, having never heard that Jesus saves, If I pray not for those who witness bear, if I know intercessory burden bear, if God's dear servants never are upon my heart, and in their labors I share no part, if by my prayerlessness there comes an hour when they lack the wisdom, grace, strength, or power, and captives escape not sin's strong bands, shall not their blood guilt be upon my hands? If I give not, and by my selfishness I cause God's work and workers' sore distress, if my poor stingy heart hardened be to needs of others their necessity, if by my failure some shall never hear the message of salvation, then I fear mine is the sin and just as fair demands that accept the guilt of bloody hands. is based on Ezekiel 3, Ezekiel 33, Ezekiel 34, Matthew 25. Whatever we did unto one least of these, our brethren, we did unto Christ. Whatever we did not do unto one least of these, we did unto Christ. And so there is the passage in the scripture that warns us that we are responsible if the watchman does not sound the alarm. And we have got to warn people of the danger they're in. The wrath of God abides over those who are outside of Christ already. It's not that they're in danger in the future, they're already under the wrath of God. Now, when we've gone into the field, one of the ways we've often started meetings when we've touched from one side to the other, the Nuba Mountains or other parts of Africa, we've used film evangelism often to open up the doors, to get things going. What do you do to get things started when you don't know anyone in the town and you don't even know their language? You take film evangelism. Now, film evangelism used to mean 16-mil projector, generator, fuel. four reels of the Jesus film. Notice here in Sudan, the woman carried the heavy things like the 35kg generator and the 30kg 16mm projector. The men, after I coached them and said, you need to help the woman, they took the four reels of the Jesus film, which is the lightest thing. Absolutely shocking. And in fact, I said to men, why don't you carry the generator? They said, that's too heavy for us. The woman must carry that. And they would continually want my backpack, and I'd say, no, if I give you my backpack, you're just going to give it to some 16-year-old girl to carry. They said, but that's why God made the girls, to carry the heavy weight. That's absolutely disgraceful. Obviously, chivalry hasn't arrived everywhere yet. So with a 16mm projector and a stand and a screen, we could show the Jesus film in Arabic, as you can see here, in the middle of the Nuba Mountains, and people would walk for miles to see these films. Now, I can't speak in Arabic. But I can take the Jesus form, which can present the gospel in Arabic, and I have. And in Chichewa and Shawna, in Portuguese and French, we've used the Jesus form in so many different languages. It's already available in over 4,000 languages. So the Jesus form is a perfect tool for evangelism. I can say I learned to preach through showing the Jesus film. I had very little confidence or public speaking skills when I was converted, and so it was introducing the Jesus film and then concluding the Jesus film that taught me how to preach and gave me the confidence to preach. To introduce the film, and after you've seen the film over a hundred times as I have, it was easy. And there was always so much to preach on. And in old days, with the 16mm projectors, you got four, five chances to preach. Introduction between each reel, and then at the conclusion. Now, videos have made things easier, but I kind of miss those opportunities to expound on aspects of the gospel as it's presented. Mr. G's film all comes from the Gospel of Luke. Now here you can see I drive in, or walk in, 16-mil projectors bounced on a rock. And by the way, regularly it jammed because of the dust. And we'd have to dismantle it, get our toothbrush and clean up the video projector, a 16-mil projector. You can see these 16-mil projectors in our displays, the stands on that side behind glass. And they all still work. All of our technology in there works, except the GPS that went underwater in the Ye River. But everything else of that old technology still works today. And for many people, it was the first time they ever saw any film. And it was a wonderful privilege to present the Jesus Fulman model in Bari, in Zandi, in Dinka, in Nowhere, all over Sudan. And the people would come with their chairs. This was the biggest thing going on in town. In fact, you can imagine, there's no electricity in South Sudan, or there wasn't then. I don't think there is now either. And we'd be the only meeting at night. When the sun set, that's when everyone went to bed. But with a film evangelism, you can extend your ministry into evenings. And if I didn't know anyone in town, and I didn't have one single contact, I could just start off with showing the film, and then at the end of it, we'd have invitations. People would come here. Can you come and speak at my church? Can you come and speak at our school? And your program was set. For the week, you just have to start this film of Antism and everything followed. And people came to Christ. It was absolutely magnificent. And many of these screens are transparent. You could see from both sides. You could have people on all sides of the projector and they could still see it. And so whether you're at a school, marketplace, church, just in the middle of nowhere, in the oasis, in the Sahara Desert, we could show the Jesus film and reach people. And it's super effective. Frank, is this you? That looks to me like Frank preaching. I think that's in the Congo, actually. wonderful opportunity, the responses, the people get so excited to get this depiction of Christ. And the thing I love about the Jesus film is it's all scripture. Every word comes from scripture. It's from the Gospel of Luke. And so I remember screening it in Zimbabwe and I said, you've seen the film, now read the book and meet the star. And so Corfin came forward and gave a Gospel of Luke to each person who came forward, in Shona in that case, and then Of course, trying to remind the people that we don't know what Jesus looked like. The Bible does not include a physical description of him except in Revelation. One that his eyes are blazed with fire and so on. But nevertheless, The script doesn't explain what he looks like, but the important thing is not that, it's what he said, what he taught, what he did. And in that, the film is accurate and true, but don't try and visualize the face of an actor when you're praying. That's idolatry. So we try to warn people sometimes, but the excitement over seeing the gospel depicted and knowing that every word in the film is from the Gospel of Luke, except one. Anyone here seen a Jesus film? How many have seen a Jesus film? Okay, what's the one word that Jesus says in the film that isn't in the Bible? You haven't watched it as often as I have. After his temptation of wilderness, he comes into the village, rubs the hair of a little child and says, hello. And I've followed it through the Bible. That's not in the Bible. So with the exception of that one word, it's very biblical. So the children love it. The adults love it. I love it. This is in the marketplace in the Congo. I think Frank was part of this particular outreach. He's gone AWOL again. So this is another film evangelism in the middle of a city in the Congo. You can get ministry almost anywhere. When you've got film evangelism, you can really have a ministry without even trying hard. we'd always leave our 16mm projector screen generator with Evangelist that we trained on the road in the Nuba Mountains and then we'd come back with another one. So when we went to video evangelism, as you can see we've got some of the videos in the display cabinets as well, we're then equipped with video projectors, and with solar panels so that they could charge it each week as they're walking. And the Jesus films in so many different languages, and over 4,000 languages, you're unlikely to know any language that the Jesus film is not available in. I've done film evangelism with Jesus and Nazareth before the Jesus film came out. Now, Jesus and Nazareth is a bit more Roman Catholic, but if you're going into a Catholic country, that might be a good one to use. For example, they've got the crowds standing in this big river, Jordan River, with John the Baptist standing there and John the Baptist solely picks up a handful of warts, scoops up warts and puts some warts on his head. Now, why would they be in the middle of a raging river and do baptism with a little bit of sprinkling? It's just, so they've got a few Catholic things in it, they've got a lot more, I think there's about the first hours on Mary before they even get to Jesus, but Jesus and Nazareth is a well-made film, a very well-made film, even though it's not as doctrinally reliable as the Jesus film. So I would still highly recommend the Jesus film, and it's available in such a wide variety of languages. We've got it on DVD, we've got them in flash drives, we've got it, of course, on the internet, but I much prefer the screenings. And what's also great about the Jesus film outreach is we can be in a place where there's power failure like Zimbabwe. And we had one place starting an outreach, and then a power failure hit. And so the local disco bar, all that sort of thing, they're all closed down. And everyone ended up at our outreach, because we were the only show still going in town, because we had our own generator. We had to bring our own infrastructure. And that's always great in a country that has power failures. Although, to be fair, South Africa has power failures. Zimbabwe occasionally gets electricity. It's in darkness most of the time, but if the president's about to make a speech, suddenly the electricity comes on, everyone says, there must be a speech on TV because there's no other way the electricity would be on now. And that's when everyone has to do everything, the ironing, whatever's got to be done, download, quickly do some internet. Because while South Africa has power failures, Zimbabwe occasionally gets electricity. I like the Passion of the Christ film for Muslim evangelism. All Muslims want to see the Passion of the Christ. It's had the best promotion possible, because Hollywood so hated Mel Gibson, so hated this presentation, that they boycotted the film, they wouldn't support it, they wouldn't let it be shown in their cinemas, and they advertised around the world, this film is anti-Semitic. And every Muslim was, oh, how can I get a copy? How can I see this? So because it was advertised as anti-Semitic, which of course it is not, it's just biblical, but that made Muslims want it. Now, the Jesus form is banned throughout the Muslim world, but the Passion of the Cross is not banned anywhere in the Middle East. For example, we've had here Heather Mercer, who is an American missionary who was condemned to death in Afghanistan for showing the Jesus form on her laptop to four individual Muslims. And that got her the death penalty. And she was only rescued because America got to war with Afghanistan and they found it convenient to rescue them. But they wouldn't have done a thing for them if the 9-11 terrorist attack hadn't happened. So Heather Mercer was here. We've got her books in the library. Prisoner of Hope. Imagine you could show the Passion of the Christ legally in countries where the Jesus film is banned. They were showing the Passion of the Christ in cineplexes in Saudi Arabia. This is a magnificent ministry opportunity because it's got a core snapshot of a part of the Gospel of Christ. It doesn't have as much of the teaching that you'd get from the Jesus film, but it has the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ, and it's a powerful, powerful presentation. If you have Muslim friends, invite them to come round to your home for watching The Passion, or lend them a copy of The Passion film. I wouldn't give it to them, I'd lend it, so that they've got a time period to watch and discuss it. Amongst the Kendrick brothers, who are great Christian filmmakers these days, one of their first films was Flywheel, and I think it's spectacularly good. They made this on next to no budget. They had one camera, next to no budget, no experience, and this film is so good because it's got a great script. Even though they didn't know what they were doing, they were very new at this, but they had a message. And it's such a good script. If you haven't seen the Flywheel film, I strongly recommend it. Most of you have probably seen Facing the Giants, which was the second one. On this occasion, they had a few cameras, and they had a bit of a budget. And this was successful enough to be shown in cinemas. And it really was what launched the Kendrick Brothers. My favorite of the Kendrick Brothers is Fireproof. maybe because I was a fireman, but it's so well made and it's got one of our good friends Kirk Cameron in it. And Kirk Cameron is such a principled Christian. He was so popular in America and Hollywood when he was a pagan. When he got converted, suddenly here's yesterday's news and he couldn't get any film rolls again from Hollywood once he's born again. But Kirk Cameron, by the way, is so principled. In the film, you see the silhouette up here, there's a section where he's reconciled with his wife. And in this kissing scene, where he reconciles with his wife, They did it in silhouettes with the light behind. And because he brought in his wife, he said he wouldn't kiss someone who was not his wife for the screen. You can see why he doesn't get a job in Hollywood anymore. And to be that principled that it was his wife that he played, well, fortunately, she was similar enough in a silhouette, even though, obviously, didn't look exactly like the actress who was playing his wife in the film. Courageous was the next in line, and that was also very powerful, very strong message on fatherhood, probably one of the most powerful of that, so also strongly recommended. Overcomer, a great, I mean, the Kendrick brothers just seem to be getting better every time. They keep bringing out good films and even better films, and War Room was, I think, probably one of the most successful films ever. And I've seen that all over Africa. It seems like even on the streets in Kenya, they're selling this film. Very powerful. Life Mark, if I'm not mistaken, is the most recent film made by the Kendrick brothers, and the only one of their scripts that's taken from a true story. And very powerful, powerful pro-life film, powerful film for adoption. And they always bring the gospel in in a creative way. How many here would have seen Unplanned? Highly recommended. It's one of the most powerful pro-life films. It's a true story. And my wife read the book, and she said that was even better. But this pro-abortion person who's a Planned Parenthood worker was a manager of Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Texas. I think she had one of the biggest abortion clinics in America. And when she actually saw an abortion, which was by accident because the doctor was short-staffed, She has converted. Now, the true story is even more incredible. She was a member of a church, a Presbyterian church, I have to say, while she was an abortion director. When she got converted, they told her to leave because she was bringing the church into disrepute because now she's becoming a pro-life activist. Can you imagine a church as that apostate? So, Unplanned is a great book, it's a great film, very powerful, well worth showing. Now, in South Africa, we've got Frans Cornier, it's like the South African equivalent of the Kendrick Brothers. He's produced a lot of good films. Born to Win is a very good film, based on a true story. How many have seen Born to Win? Who are you missing out? It's a good film. I'm sure most have seen God's Not Dead. I recommend the first one a lot. I recommend the second one as well. I don't recommend the new one. The latest one is pathetic garbage. It's where this lazy pastor gives up the church, gives up everything. Basically, it's a pagan's takeover in the university campus. I just don't get the point. That's the opposite of being an overcomer. They stand up for Christ so powerfully in God's not dead 1 and 2 and then light in the darkness is just it's like total capitulation and cowardice and fleeing from the fight. So I would not recommend the latest version. More than dreams? How many know this film? It's the best film to put in the hands of a Muslim in many ways, aside from the passion of the Christ. More Than Dreams has five testimonies of Muslims from many different parts of the world, Egypt, Iran, all the way through to Nigeria, coming to Christ. So it's got five testimonies of Muslims who found Christ. True stories, but of course reenacted. Excellent evangelistic tool to reach Muslims. Faith Like Potatoes was Frantz Kronier's first film that he made in South Africa, and that was very successful and very popular. But Hansi, his second film, while being a commercial failure, was, I think, a far better film than Faith Like Potatoes. How many people here would have seen Hansi? I think it is seriously powerful and well worth supporting. So Franz Kroenig has produced some good films. There's also Tornado, which Richard van der Bergh made, which is a fairly slow-moving sometimes, but a good gospel presentation. And people who like horses will really love this film. Of course, Facing the Giants we know. Philippians 4 verse 8 says, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. That should be our standard for films. That excludes Hollywood right there. It excludes ETV or Evil TV. It excludes M-Web, M-Net. It excludes all the garbage from SATV, Satanic Ultra Television. But this is the standard. This is what you need to move for. Now, I like films that are historical as well, like Martin Luther and Luther film. Now, the modern Luther film, made in 2003, was well made, but it's got too many anachronistic features for me to like it as a historian. Because, I mean, for example, got pews in the churches, long before pews were invented, when people stood in church. And they've got men and women intermingled in the church at a time when the men would be on one side and the women would be on another. They've got Luther walking around the church like he's some Willow Creek pastor instead of preaching from the pulpit. So there's a lot of nonsense, especially if they don't have any theological depth. It seems that he is converted by emotional experiences rather than doctrine. So I prefer the black and white 1953 version on Martin Luther, which is superior. It's got so much more doctrine. Yes, it's not as expensive a production, but it's well made. And it's something that's serious. But if you want to get young people interested in the Reformation, then Martin Luther forms probably a good way of getting them to recognize the reformers as real people, dealing with real issues, and it's fast moving, it's an expensive production, it's extremely well made, but it just is theologically light. The Chronicles of Narnia are superb, especially for children, but adults love it too. C.S. Lewis was a serious evangelical Christian, a great apologist, and his books are great. I've read all seven of the books with my children. I take my children to see the films that do exist on Chronicles of Narnia, and I highly recommend it. But now, with film evangelism, you've got a chance to interact with the people. So I'd like to give you, and those who've come to previous evangelism workshop know our EE presentation, but let's get people moving because if you're going to schools to distribute these Jesus Messiah books in the schools, let's get the people involved. So, you know how a marching song works in the army. Stand up and swing your arms and march, and I call out the words and then you follow. For the wage of sin is death. Calming at your new joyless breath. You don't need to know this strife. For the gift of God is eternal life. Romans 6 verse 23. Tell me now what it's going to be. Death, life, death, life, death, life. Always end on life. Okay, now, I'm going to give you a presentation, and you can stay seated, and then learn, because we'll do it together afterwards. So, Charles Spurgeon said, if I can get people to think about eternity for a few minutes, I can lead them to Christ. And that's why the best time for evangelism is at a funeral. People are serious, and they're thinking about eternity. It's a good time to evangelize. Probably one of the most difficult times to evangelize is at a wedding. Everyone's too distracted. But you've got to get people to think about eternity. So here we've gotten James Kennedy's EE put to movements so that you can do this without visuals or with. You know, what a person hears, they remember about 10% of what they hear. What a person sees, they remember about 30%. What they hear and see at the same time could remember about 50%. If they do it or write it, up to 80% more. So the more you can get people involved, the better. Let's start off with getting people to think about Trinity. Do you ever think about heaven? If you were to die today, do you know for sure whether you'd go to heaven? Heaven is a free gift. It's nothing you can work for or deserve. Man is a sinner. And we cannot save ourselves. I mean, if you're in the ocean or in the lake or in quicksand, you can't pull yourself out. We cannot save ourselves. God is holy, loving, and just. On the one hand, God loves us, and he doesn't want to punish us. But on the other hand, God is just, and he must punish sin. Can you see the problem? God solved this problem by sending his son, Jesus. Jesus is God. He came from heaven above. He lived a perfect life. He died on the cross to pay for our sins. He rose from the dead. He is in heaven now, offering us the free gift of eternal life. How do we get this gift? By faith. Now, faith is not just knowing something in your head. It's not just temporary. Saving faith is trusting in Jesus Christ alone, with your whole heart. Believe in Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Does this make sense to you? Would you like to pray now and ask Jesus to forgive your sins and to give you the gift of eternal life? You can pray this prayer. Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I'm sorry for my sins. Please forgive me. Come into my heart to love and help me to love and obey you as my Lord and Savior. Amen. He who believes has eternal life. Right. Now, let's get you ready for it. Now, of course, you don't necessarily have to go through this. If you're talking to a person conversationally, this will just help you remember. But if you're presenting it to a school or a class, of course, good to go with a sign. So let's do the signs together. Bare bones. Heaven. Two hands directly pointed higher. No, not like that. Like this. Two hands pointing straight up. Heaven. Man, two thumbs pointed towards yourself. Man, which includes us. And don't get all feminist on us. Man embraces woman. Man includes woman. Yeah, there we go. And then, God. Two hands in surrendering position. Old Testament priests used to pray like this. Surrendering to God, he's the highest authority. God. Christ. Faith. Two hands over your heart. And then commit, and two hands together, praying. So, heaven. Man. God. Christ. Faith. Commitment. Six main sections of Evangelism Explosion and key things you must cover in Evangelism. Okay, let's start off with the marching song. For the weight of sin is death, coming at you in joyless breath. You don't need to know this strife, for the gift of God is eternal life. Romans 6 verse 23, tell me now what it's going to be. Death, life, death, life, death, life. Right. Now, repetition brings revelation. Everyone remain standing. We're going to work through this together. Do you ever think about heaven? Do you ever think about heaven? If you were to die tonight, do you know for sure that you're going to heaven? If you were to die tonight, do you know for sure that you're going to heaven? Heaven is a free gift. It's not something we can work for or deserve. Man is a sinner. And we cannot save ourselves. God is holy. loving and just. On the one hand God loves us and he doesn't want to punish us. But on the other hand God is just and he must punish sin. Can you see the problem? God solved this problem by sending his son Jesus. Jesus is God. He came from heaven above He lived a perfect life. He died on the cross to pay for our sins. He rose from the dead. He is in heaven now, offering us the free gift of eternal life. How do we get this gift? By faith. Now faith is not just knowing something in your head. It's not just temporary. Saving faith is trusting in Jesus Christ alone with your whole heart. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Does this make sense to you? Would you like to pray now and ask Jesus to forgive your sins and to give you the gift of eternal life? You can pray this prayer. Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I am sorry for my sins. Please forgive me. Come into my heart. Help me to love and obey you as my Lord and Savior. Amen. He who believes has eternal life. Marching song. For the weight of sin is death. Calming yet you enjoy life's breath. You don't need to know this life. For the gift of God is eternal life. Romans 6 verse 23. Tell me now what it's going to be. Death, life, death, life, death, life. Amen. Thank you. So practice that. Repetition brings revelation. You can go on the FrontlineMissionSA.org website for more resources and even the audio visuals of this workshop and other workshops will be available there that you can share with others. FrontlineMissionSA.org, not Frontline Missions, FrontlineMissionSA.org. So this is the quarter mile store where you can come and load up. Speak to Frank before you leave today if you've got specific requests that you need quantities. If you're able to take today, if you have sufficient transport, then we can take you back to the stores and you can load up before you leave. If you just need small quantities, help yourself to what's on the tables here. But there's a lot more at stores. And our vision, Africa for Christ, pray for. upcoming events as well. Sunday the 6th of October we've got an opportunity coming up just a month from now. Life Chain Sunday. The first Sunday of every October is International Lifetrain Sunday. We meet at Birkencroft Street at the International Conference Center, the entrance to Waterfront, on a big pedestrian island with a pedestrian bridge, entrance to Cape Town, and it'll be from 2 to 4. And it's an opportunity to distribute gospel literature, get into conversations, even pass out literature to passing motorists. And we have banners and placards and flags to display life begins at conception and abortion is murder. Every abortion stops the beating heart, making a stand to people passing by. We can reach thousands of people in a clear pro-life message, but these are always opportunities for evangelism too. On the 16th of October, we'll have a workshop here in the upper room again, but dealing with Reformation history. We're heading towards Reformation Day on the 31st of October, when we'll meet at Funchuk at the Huguenot Monument for a Reformation celebration service. But this will be understanding some of the great reformers, Martin Luther, William Carey, All these great folks from Wycliffe, Kelvin, learning about John Knox and so on. So that's coming up on the 16th. On the 10th of November, we'll have International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, IDOP, which we have been organizing and hosting for over 30 years. It's an international event, up to two 100,000 churches taking part in a single year. We're praying with the Persecute Church and for the Persecute Church. Second, Sunday, November, you know, every year people who've fought in the wars remember the soldiers who've died, normally on 11th of November. So it's just decided we need to remember martyrs of the church as well. Through the ages, learn from the Persecute Church and pray for the many churches that are being persecuted today. We have a lot of tracks that you can take. I believe in hard copy tracks, but we've also got electronic tracks. that you can download and share because of the failure of Southern Postal Service. We've got, of course, lots of great books and Christian Liberty books as well. And these are some of our in-house books that are also available as e-books and prints on demand. Because of the failure of postal services in many parts of the world, especially South Africa, we need to depend on something other than the postal service. You know, the first time Frontline sent out a mailing, and we got up to 8,000 people on the mailing list, it cost four cents a stamp. originally. Anyone know what it cost today? Well, I think it's now about 4 Rand 80 or something like that, more like close to 5 Rand now than 4 cents. We used to be able to send a box of literature, 5 kilogram box of literature for 4 Rand by post across to America or Germany, wherever. And we used to be able to send mail sacks of books cheaper. So book post mail sacks used to be 40, 45 kilos in a mail sack, we could ship across the oceans, surface mail, for less than 40 rand. I mean, just think, now they're talking about thousands of rands to do something equivalent. It's ridiculous. So we've got to go print on demand an e-book just because of the nature of the failure of government operators to enterprise. State-operated enterprises are just an opportunity to loot. And like the post office being closed down, bankrupt, and all of that. we've got to find alternatives. So a lot of our things are moving online. I don't like people saying, I don't need a Bible. I've got the Bible on my phone. And the reason is people come to church, they might be following the Bible on their phone, but then, bing, and the next thing, the person's doing some internet and checking Instagram. Too much distraction. A hard copy Bible does not distract you. So when people say, I can get it on the internet, well, I'm glad for the people who can reach it by internet, the people in Mongolia, North Korea, and that's the only option. And they probably wouldn't allow themselves to be distracted. But I don't think we, who can have a hard copy in our hands, should use the excuse, well, I've got the Bible in my cell phone. Because a person who's reading the Bible on their cell phone in church gets distracted. There's too many things popping up in this and that. So hard copy's still better. So please pray for Frontline Fellowship. We've been going since 1982, which means now 42 years. And we praise God for all the resources he has entrusted us.